CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY
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Ever since the revival of interest in what took place at the 1888 General Conference session in
That we might understand what we are talking about, we should keep before us a clear definition of the term - corporate. This word comes from the Latin - corpus - meaning, body. To incorporate is to make into a body, a single unit composed of few or many members. Such a corporate body, religious in nature, is called a church. In Scripture, such a body is compared to the human organism. (1 Cor. 12:12) The legal aspects of a corporation is a body formed and authorized by law to act as a single person although constituted of more than one person, and legally endowed with the right of succession. This right of succession, while legally recognized in its provision for corporations, is a fundamental Scriptural teaching regarding the church.
Over and above, and within a corporate concept, there is granted to every individual, the power of choice. In most instances, I choose to become a part of a "corpus," the only exception being my natural birth, with its gift of family ties, nationality, race, and citizenship. But even here, I can spurn my family; I can renounce my citizenship, or choose another. However, in the area of the corpus we call the church, I must choose what that church shall be. Then, what are my responsibilities by so choosing? What is my accountability because of that choice? What choices does one have, once he becomes a part of such a corpus?
There is and always has been tension between individual responsibility and corporate accountability. Man was created in the Image of God, and with this image came certain power - power to think and to do. It has been stated thus:
Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator - individuality, power to think and to do....It is the work of true education to develop this power; to train youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of other men's thoughts. (Education, p. 17)
Since "in the highest sense, the work of education and the work of redemption are one" (ibid., p. 30), the Church, though a corpus, to be true to its trust, must seek the development in the individuals composing the body, that restoration of the image of God, which gives them the power to think and to act. It is the object of this study to explore what God has to say about corporate accountability, so that we may know how to relate as individuals to the crisis of corporate identity at this present time.
God created the first corporation. Its formation is described in these words:
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of
Here we have two individuals, with individual responsibility, yet declared to be one in a corporate identity.
The next picture presented in the Scripture record is the seduction of Eve by the serpent to partake of that which God had forbidden. But the question comes - Did Adam have to sin because he was one with Eve? No! He had been created in the image of God with the power to think and to do as an individual. How God would have met the situation had Adam not chosen to eat of the fruit offered to him by Eve is a moot question. However, the Scripture does not state that by Eve sin entered the world, but
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by "one man." (Rom. 5:17) By his deliberate disobedience, Adam not only surrendered his individual responsibility, but joined corporately in passing death to the human race. "As in Adam all die." (1 Cor. 15:22a) Since a corporation has the power of succession, death passed upon all man because of their identity in that first corporation. Paul stated it this way - Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." (Rom. 5:12)
God has provided another corporation. There is the corpus of Adam; there is the corpus of Christ. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (1 Cor. 15:22) "Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." (Rom. 5:18) Since I by natural birth am involved in the corpus of Adam, how do I change corpora? To as many as receive the Word made flesh, "to them gave He power to become sons of God [not sons of Adam], even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:12-13) With the coming of God into humanity - "God was manifest in the flesh" (1 Tim. 3:16) - the corpus Christi became as real as is the corpus of Adam. This new corpus
brought about by God, as was the first corporation in
Is this succession organizational, or is it the succession of truth? In other words - Do we find the truth by submitting to the Church, or do we find the Church by submitting to the truth?
THE
Jesus declared - "I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." (John 14:6) The only access back to the Father and to life - for "in Adam all die" - is through Jesus Christ. When alone with His disciples in the region of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus questioned them about whom the people perceived Him to be. The disciples had heard various comments as they mingled with the multitudes who came to listen and to be healed. Then Jesus asked them directly - "But whom say ye that I am?" (Matt. 16:15) To this question, Peter responded - "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." This perception of reality in contradiction to what He appeared to be - the Son of man - came only through revelation. It could not be comprehended through the insight available to "flesh and blood" but came from the "Father which is in heaven." Upon this revelation of truth - divine in origin, solid as a rock - Jesus declared He would build His Church. (Matt. 16:17-18) He, the very embodiment of Truth, became the head of that body - the
Paul perceived this nature of the
These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the stay of the truth. (1 Tim. 3:14-15, margin)
The
It is most informative, and also very revealing how the Apostolic Church viewed themselves and how they were viewed by the Jewish Church of which they were or had been a part depending upon their spiritual progression. When Paul, sought to apprehend heretics, dissidents, or whatever name they might have been called in the synagogues of
And he [Paul] went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the
After this decision by the Apostle Paul, the word of God grew mightily and prevailed so that "there was no small stir about the way." (Acts 19:23 Gr) This concept of "The Way" was again used by Paul as he addressed the riotous Jewish mob from the stairs of the
Speaking in the Hebrew tongue, he told of his education and training in
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of Gamaliel, his zeal "toward God," and how he "persecuted this way unto death." (Acts 22:4) It is clear from the book of Acts, that while the disciples of Christ were first called "Christians" at
This concept of the way of truth which brings life is very interestingly projected in the New Testament. Christ presented the devil as a murderer - the one who brings death, and the reason given is that he "abode not in the truth." (John 8:44) Christ on the other hand is set forth as "the Prince of life." (Acts 3:15) He came to "destroy him that had the power of death." (Heb. 2:14) He, the Word made flesh, was "full of grace and truth." (John 1:14) Through the atoning sacrifice of
The concept as to what constitutes succession in the
These convictions form the basis for Paul's teachings as found in the book of Romans: "They which are the children of the flesh [the succession upon which the corpus of
What did Paul want those to see - those still attached to the succession of the flesh? "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Gal. 3:29) The inheritance would not come through the corporate structure of
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Let us consider Paul's question - "Hath God cast away His people? - in the context of today - the "now time." Hath God cast away the Advent Movement? God forbid! How can He deny that which is the fulfilment of prophecy which He himself mandated? (Rev. 1:1; 14:6-12) But the Advent Movement and the
“Watchman,
what of the night?”
"The hour has come, the hour is striking and striking at you,
the hour and the end!" Eze. 7:6 (Moffatt)
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